I’ve been here 10 months and the time seems to have gone by
so quickly. I can’t believe it; I’m really not ready to go yet. It might be partly
because I’m about to leave, but I feel like I’m getting things done in the
office, enjoying and doing a good job at teaching, helping a little, and
continuing to build relationships with people. Now that people know I’m leaving
in under 4 weeks (ok closer to 3 but I don’t want to say it!) it’s certainly time
to make the most of the time that’s left. As the English teacher likes to say, “Time
is money.”
So things are going well; I’m trying to balance time with
people in the office, down at MwanaNshuti, seeing others, and taking some time
to myself (and hopefully get more job applications in). Work highlights have
been good steps organizationally in the office and English class and finally “co-teaching”
the way it should be. Collaborating. Talking. Good stuff. Maybe I will leave
behind a little something that is noticeable.
It’s going to be a sad day when I leave my students. Even several of the ones I don’t speak with that much (they are shy or not comfortable in English) have told me they will be sad to see me go. I’ve heard that too much the past week and it’s making it even harder for me to think about leaving. So I’m trying to prepare fun lessons, do things we haven’t done yet (kickball didn’t work out so well on the first attempt but watching “Bend it like Beckham” was a huge hit!), and of course taking more photos and laughing a lot. The students’ phrase of the week was “It’s okay.” Apparently I say it a lot and Fatuma has helped them all catch on and they love imitating me. It makes me laugh, and I like laughing, so we all have fun.
Random recent highlights:
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| New dress = good day to take photos with the students! |
~Getting my dress from Samuel (sewing teacher at MwanaNshuti) – and a million compliments (I don’t usually “dress up” as most of you know!)
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| Mail system in Kigali - PO boxes |
~Going to do ‘umuganda’ (communal work day) with my students – talking with Espée on the way up and helping them dig/cut the grass (with a hoe!) despite their protests that I couldn’t or shouldn’t do it!
~Learning to cut corn off the stalks at MwanaNshuti with the other teachers (the angle is quite important…60 degrees not 90!)…and wondering how corn is harvested in the US!
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| Teachers hard at work (all 4 of us happened to be around at the same time! very rare) |
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| The English teachers showing our work and the corn Rwandans love. |
~Going to visit our friend Esther (a teacher at a nice girls’
school in the village kinda) – a good time to relax, play games (pass the pigs
and Dutch Blitz!) and do some logic puzzles, everything I love!
~Teaching Joyce’s kids how to play Snakes and Ladders on a
homemade board. Jessica (age 8) and Joyce loved it and Bridget (age 4) had fun
rolling the die, counting to 10 in English and randomly setting her marker down
near ours (or often on the same square as me). It was cute.
Gotta learn and do these things while I can! I’m hoping there
will be more fun memories like that in the next couple weeks before I go. I
certainly wish I could “do more” for my students and (often) I really wish I
could finish the school year with them, but I realize there really isn’t a lot
I can do for them and because of the language barrier - I can’t really talk
with them about their lives, problems at home or their hopes for the future. So
I’m trying to set aside my desires and things I had hoped (or still hope) to
accomplish and entrust my friends and students into God’s hands. And my future
too, I suppose. After all, we could be in no better place.
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| A photo with 3 sweet girls who live 2+ hours away from school! (Ok people here don't walk fast, but still...although who blames them for going slowly if they have that far to go!?!) |
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| Beautiful smiles girls, thank you! |
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| Group shot - back to no smiles of course... |
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